Google Teams with 'Highlights', Shows How Goofus and Gallant Use the Internet

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes:

Last month there was a special Google-funded edition of Highlights for Children, the 77-year-old magazine targetting children between the ages of 6 and 12. This edition was based on Google's 'Be Internet Awesome' curriculum, and 1.25 million copies of the print magazine were distributed to children, schools, and other organizations. It's all part of a new partnership between Google and Highlights.

A Google.org blog post calls out the special issue's Goofus and Gallant cartoon, in which always-does-the-wrong-thing Goofus 'promised Kayden he wouldn't share the silly photo, but he shares it anyway', while always-does-the-right-thing Gallant 'asks others if it's OK to share their photos'...

theodp's orignal submission linked ironically to Slashdot's earlier story, 'Google Hit With Lawsuit Alleging It Stole Data From Millions of Users To Train Its AI Tools.'

But even beyond that, it's not always clear what the cartoon is teaching. (In one picture it looks like they're condemning Goofus for not intervening in a flame war between two other people — 'Be Kind!')

Still, for me the biggest surprise is that Goofus and Gallant even have laptops. (How old are these kids, that they're already uploading photos of the other children onto the internet?!) Will 6- to 12-year-old children start demanding that their parents buy them their own laptop now — since even Goofus and Gallant already have them?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.